The Day After TomorrowMy Way
by mlach11
Summary: My version on what might have happened in the movie. (Bad Summary;)
1. Chapter 1

Note: This story begins when Sam, Laura, JD, and Brian are in the streets heading to the library. Everything in this chapter takes place from Sam's POV.  
I led the way, trudging through the waist deep water en route to the library. I heard Brian, JD, and Laura behind me, cursing as they tried to wade as fast as they could. I reached the steps of the library, feeling relief as my body was finally out of the frigid water. Maybe it was just me, but the water felt colder and higher than it had been when we'd started to walk from JD's apartment. Brian and JD quickly joined me on the steps, shivering as the icy air hit their wet bodies. I felt my heart stop when I realized that Laura was not with them. Laura Chapman, the girl I've had a huge crush on since freshman year. "Where's Laura?" I yelled to Brian and JD over the roar of the hoards of people. "She's right there!" JD shouted back, pointing to a taxi that was stuck in the water in front of the steps. I squinted my eyes; sure enough, Laura was there, hunched over on the back of the taxi while a policeman broke a window, presumably to free some trapped passengers. A woman and her children slipped out through the window, and to my relief, Laura began walking with them up the steps to the library. Before they had reached the steps, however, the woman started pointing back to the taxi frantically. And Laura turned around to head back in the water.  
I hopped up and down, willing Laura to hurry up and get inside where it was safe. My gaze was drawn up the street by some sudden movement. To my horror, I saw a sixty foot high wall of water angrily rushing towards us. "Laura!" I shouted, as I ran down the steps to get her.  
Of course, she didn't hear me. My surge of panic propelled me faster than I thought I could move through the icy cold water. I reached the taxi and shouted, "Laura!" again.  
This time she heard me, and looked up at me. I yelled, "We gotta go now!" and pointed up the vast canyon of steel buildings. She followed my finger and froze. "Come on!" I yelled, grabbing her hand and pulling her with me towards the library. We ran as fast as we could up the steps. But once we reached the top, there was a traffic jam of people to get in through the door. Holding Laura's hand, I shoved her in the rotating door while I followed. I let go of her hand as I felt her slip free of the crowd. I could see Laura running up the stairs inside of the library. She stopped and turned around, searching for me in the crowd. Our eyes caught. I mouthed, "Go," and she nodded sadly, her expression turning to horror as she saw what was coming behind me: death.  
The second the wave hit the group I was in, I felt myself getting thrown forward, through glass, glancing off stone. I was swept faster than I had ever gone before through the library's first floor, a large, marble statue looming right in my path. I tried to veer away, but I was moving too fast.......too fast.....too fast.  
My only thought on impact was that I hoped Laura was alright. 


	2. Chapter 2

Note: Everything in this chapter takes place from Sam's POV.....again.  
  
I awoke with a throbbing pain in my head and daggers in my chest.  
  
I was floating on my back in the icy cold water, feeling numb and disoriented. I moaned softly, in a world of agony. My lungs felt like they were pincushions, and I could feel that some of my ribs were displaced by the pressure on my lungs and below them. I could feel continuous trickles of blood running down the side of my face, starting from my forehead. My legs were almost completely numb, and I knew that I had to get out of the water before I got hypothermia.  
  
I rolled over slowly, wincing and gasping in pain as I felt the water hit my stomach. Freezing cold, I happened to look down below me in the crystal clear water. A little boy, no more than seven, lay trapped underneath a chandelier, his eyes open in hysteria and pain. They pleaded with me to help him.  
  
I knew I couldn't let him die, so I made a split second decision. Moving as fast as I could with my broken ribs, I took as deep of a breath as I could stand, and dove down towards the boy. The water felt like needles sticking into every part of my body. I opened my eyes and could feel the water stinging and tearing at my corneas with every stroke of my arms. I spotted the boy easily enough, about ten feet down.  
  
As I drew closer to him, I could see that the chandelier had impaled his leg in three different places. When I was hovering about two feet above the boy, I grasped the piece of the chandelier that was sticking up, and pulled as hard as I could, bracing my feet on either side of the boy's leg. It came free after two or three pulls. Lighter than I had expected it to be, my momentum carried the chandelier up over my head, pulling me with it. I swam over to the side of the boy and let go of it, watching it slowly float down to the bottom.  
  
I swam to the bottom again, and, grabbing the boy under one arm, pushed up to the surface. We broke the water, gasping. Immediately, my chest throbbed painfully. While I had been underwater, I'd forgotten all about the pain of my chest. This time, I thrust the pain aside, knowing that I had to get the boy and myself out of the water as soon as possible. I sidestroked with him to the partially submerged stairs leading up to the room where the other survivors had gone. "Are you alright?" I managed to gasp after I had pulled us out of the water.  
  
He nodded slowly, shivering uncontrollably. "Thank you for saving my life," he whispered, "I was afraid you'd just leave me there."  
  
My heart broke into a thousand pieces. How could anyone be so cruel as to leave a helpless boy trapped under freezing cold water? I mean, I know there are people like that, but I couldn't fathom doing anything that mean. "I would never do that," I replied.  
  
He smiled through the shudders, and I returned the gesture. As I looked past his quaking shoulders, I spotted a payphone. The grin slowly slipped from my face. Older payphones draw their power directly from the subway. I could make a phone call, if this worked. I slowly eased myself back into the water, grimacing and groaning as I got deeper. I called to the boy, "I'll be right back. I'm going to try and make a phone call."  
  
I slowly wove my way through the floating debris, ignoring the icy-hot pain my lungs felt and the throbbing of my bloody forehead. I stood on the ledge next to the phone, and, taking the phone off the hook, proceeded to punch in the digits of my father's, Jack Hall, work office. I shivered as the phone rang. "Pick up, pick up," I muttered to no one, silently willing my father to pick up the phone. Finally, I heard my father's flustered voice on the other end. "Hello?"  
  
"Dad! Dad! It's me!" I shouted, "It's me, Sam!"  
  
"Sam? Are you all right?!" he yelled back, some relief in his hoarse voice.  
  
"Yes, I'm fine. I'm with a bunch of other people at the public library."  
  
"Thank God. Your mother and I have been so worried about you. Listen, Sam. This storm is going to get worse. It'll be like a hurricane with an eye right in the center of it. When the eye hits, the air's so cold you could freeze to death in seconds."  
  
I noticed that the water level was rising. Instead of where it was before, at my waist, the frigid water was chest deep and rising. "Uh-huh," I replied, "so what do we do?"  
  
"Stay inside, and burn whatever you can to stay warm. Do not leave the library. I will come for you. Do you understand? I will come for you," my father said with such conviction that I almost believed him, "They're evacuating the southern states, and I'm assuming that everybody else will want to head south as well. Do not, under any circumstances, go with them."  
  
I suddenly found I could not speak, because the water was now over my mouth and nose. I could hear Dad on the other end saying, "Sam? Sam? Did you hear me? Sam?" as I ducked and swam under water until I reached the stairs. I gasped as the boy grabbed my chest to pull me up, and nearly passed out from the excruciating pain. "Thank you," I managed to whisper as he looked at me with concern, "I'm Sam Hall."  
  
"I'm Trey Crichton."  
  
"Well, Trey," I said as pulled myself up, "let's go join the others." 


End file.
